Whether you’re a teacher presenting a PowerPoint slide show to colleagues, parents, or students or if you’re teaching students how to give a dynamic presentation to their peers, following are ten tips to keep your audience hooked! Animating a presentation creatively can keep viewers engaged and interested.

Use a variety of animation types
There are lots of types of animation effects: an entrance effect makes an object appear, an emphasis effect draws attention to an object, a motion path makes an object move in a selected path on a slide, and an exit effect causes objects vanish. Consider adding more than one animation to an object – it can appear on the scene using a zoom entrance, then pulse using an emphasis effect, move around using a motion path, and finally fly out using an exit animation.
Be careful though. The variety of animations should not be unlimited. A repeated animation gives consistency to a presentation. For example, text on all slides always appearing the same way lends a professional touch to the presentation.

Plan the order of appearance of objects and text
What should show up first? second? third? Usually, you would start with the title, then text, then pictures. If there is a picture of a character and a callout with what he is saying, the picture should appear first, then the words. Sequence the animations in a logical order for what is on the slide.

Consider the audience when choosing animation effects
Lots of fun, exciting effects such as Boomerang, Bounce, Pinwheel are appropriate for younger children watching a slide show with lots of pictures, while presentations with text for adults would suit more moderate animations such as Fade, Wipe, or Float.

Group objects
If you want several objects to animate at one time, group them. To do this, click on a slide object and hold down the SHIFT key. Click on the other objects you want to include in the group. Once they are all selected, select Group.

Control flow of information
If there is bulleted text on the slide, the bullets should appear one point at a time. If no animation is applied and text appears all at once, people may read ahead and tune out extra information provided by the speaker. If the text is animated, ensure that there is ample time to read the words. Although you are familiar with your own slide show, remember that most viewers will be seeing it for the first time, and need extra time to read the words and watch the action.

Suit the type of animation to the topic
Pick appropriate effects. For example, a bounce effect works for a ball but not a car. Spinning text is confusing; appear, fade, and object color effects work better for words.

Choose effect options
Animation effects often have a number of options which can be adjusted in most apps. The type of options such as direction, speed, or color, vary with the particular type of effect. For example, you can choose to have text float in from the top or bottom. Not all animation effects have options.

Manual or automatic?
Decide if you want to control the animations manually – use the On Click start action – or automatically – choose After Previous. Some apps, such as PowerPoint, allow you to change how an animation starts, how long it plays, and if there is a delay between effects. Some apps, such as Google Slides, set the speed as slow, medium, or fast. Make sure the animations play slowly enough so that a first time viewer is not confused by the action.

Make objects appear and disappear
When animating more than one text box on a slide, you can make them show and then vanish, one at a time. In this way, you can have several text boxes placed on top of one another, yet appear separately and then disappear. This is perfect when characters speaking or debating. A conversation can be animated on one slide.

Don’t animate everything
Animating a presentation should attract viewer interest, not distract them. Clip art that is scenery such as a building or tree may look odd zooming onto the slide.

Have fun with animation using these TechnoKids technology projects.

Use TechnoPresenter to teach essential research and presentation skills. Students create a slide show on any topic of their choice, then build public speaking skills as their present to their peers.

In TechnoToon, students create a digital story that looks like a cartoon or animated comic strip. Inspire young writers and budding artists using Google Slides or PowerPoint.

Take a stand! Students collaborate with a partner to debate the pros and cons of a controversial issue of their choice in TechnoDebate. They use Google Slides or PowerPoint Online to prepare an animated debate.

My Grade 6 students just completed their digital scrapbooks. They were made using Microsoft PowerPoint. I loved the activity so much that I am thinking about writing a TechnoKids technology project for the activity. Let me tell you more about it!

It was the final computer class of the school year. We had just finished TechnoClue and I was interested in a quick review activity to fill the last class period. I knew whatever we did, had to be FUN!

NOTE: The TechnoClue project has been a favorite for many years. Unfortunately, it is no longer available. To find other TechnoKids projects view the Project Matrix or visit the TechnoKids website.

I had explored using Web 2.0 tools to create an online photo album but the school network prohibited using online apps. This resulted in my backup plan or PLAN B – to use PowerPoint. At first, I was so disappointed…that was until I experienced the students’ enthusiasm for the task. They LOVED it!

To prepare for class, I had gathered photos taken throughout the school year and placed them into a shared folder. I had also created a sample digital scrapbook.

When the students came into class I wasted no time. I introduced the task, showed the sample, and then offered design and layout suggestions. That was it! They were to use all the skills they had learned throughout the year to complete the task by the END OF CLASS. It was the perfect review activity.

Why PowerPoint was the Right Choice

At first I wanted to use the Web 2.0 Tools such as Smilebox and MyScrapNook. Now I am glad I didn’t. Why?

I now realize the power of a blank PowerPoint slide. It gives students an empty canvas that they can pour all of their creativity onto to transform it from something white and bland, to something colorful and interesting. A template from an online app can’t do that!

The online apps I experimented with were very fun, but the design choices had already been made. This can be limiting.

My students astounded me with their original ideas. For example, one students use a textured background that looked like a corkboard. She then applied a picture style to each picture to make it look like a Polaroid picture. Each image was stuck to the board using a clip art push pin. It looked fantastic!

Another student used an AutoShape to list all of her classmates beside a class photo. She could not have done that with a preset template. I can go on and on about students amazing design and layout choices. I was really impressed by their skillset and the quality of the final product.

Sometimes Plan B turns out to be way better than Plan A.

Technology Skills

As a teacher, it is very rewarding to see my students apply their learning by transferring their skills to a new task. My students were able to design four or sometimes even more slides in only about 35 minutes. Their skillset was impressive! They were able to:

adjust View settings to preview images in a folder

toggle between open windows

insert a new slide and select a suitable layout

create a title slide

decorate a publication with clip art

insert a picture from file

scale, position, rotate, and flip objects

apply picture styles to clip art and images

insert and format WordArt

draw and format shapes

add text to shapes

format text to make it eye catching and easy to read

apply a slide design and customize the color scheme

format a slide background and apply it to only one slide

hide the background graphics on only one slide

adjust object order

print a presentation as a handout and adjust the print settings

Making scrapbook pages using PowerPoint was a fun activity and it would definitely be one I would do again.

Presentation software offers a motivating and comprehensive way for students to demonstrate their learning by creating a slideshow. A slideshow presentation is a formal display of information organized onto slides to show or explain a concept to an audience. Students apply technology skills to arrange text, pictures, diagrams, graphs, sound, and video onto slides. Animations and transitions can be included to add interest to the show. A presentation can act as a visual aid during a lecture or speech. In Microsoft PowerPoint, the presentation file can also be viewed as a kiosk, video, web page, or handout.

Students can learn presentation skills by completing a variety of projects.

When selecting a product you want students to create using a presentation program it is essential to determine the technology skills that are required. In addition, you must consider the students’ grade level and previous computer experience prior to selecting a task. Presentation skills can be grouped into basic and advanced levels of difficulty.

Basic Presentation Skills:

insert text into a placeholder

format text: font, style, size, and color

select a slide layout

apply a slide design

customize the color scheme

customize the font scheme

apply a background to a slide

insert and format WordArt

insert and format clip art

insert and format picture

draw and format shapes

scale, move, and rotate objects

spell check a presentation

play the slideshow

apply transitions

apply simple animations

print a slideshow as a handout

create speaker notes

Advanced Presentation Skills

save a slideshow as a web page

save a slideshow as a kiosk

create a slide master

display information in a graphic organizer

insert and format tables

narrate a slideshow

set slide timings

insert video or audio and adjust settings

add action buttons

group and align slide objects

sort slides in Slide Sorter view

use screen navigation tools

use the pen during a presentation

apply custom animation

customize headers and footers

add screen tips

bookmark a location on a slide

create a hyperlink to a bookmark

Integrate presentation technology skills into curriculum to create meaningful learning experiences for your students. Presentations are a creative and relevant way to hook students’ interest as they demonstrate their knowledge using multimedia.